This invention pertains to apparatus for collecting linear material. In one of its more specific aspects, the present invention relates to apparatus for collecting a glass fiber roving material.
A great deal of technology has been developed on collecting a linear material and it is a common practice in the textile industry to collect continuous multifilament linear material such as strand, yarn and roving into a wound package on the spindle or collet of a winder. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,838,827; 3,547,361 and 3,523,650 all show a portion of the technology that has developed to collect linear material.
One of the major problem areas in collecting linear material is that the parckages collected are not always uniform. The packages may have a density that varies, be out of round, or have other defects that make it difficult to unwind the material from the package. These problems become even more significant in view of the present trend to increase the size of the package that are collected. When the packages are collected a transverse guide places the linear material on the package and supplies a force to the material as it is placed on the package. The force from the traverse guide controls the density of the linear material on the package. The prior art mechanisms have not been able to keep a uniform force on the material as it is collected. If the variations in the force become too great the package may have unacceptable differences in density. In the larger packages it is even more difficult to have the traverse guided place the material on the package with a uniform force. Therefore, on the large packages there are more problems with the density of the packages.
An additional problem with the larger packages is that since it is difficult to place the linear material on the package with the same force throughout the formation of the package, an out of round package may develop. When an out of round package develops, the out of round portion has a tendency to strike the traverse guide. Since the package is large, the out of round portion can strike the traverse guide with enough force to temporarily move the traverse guide away from the package. The traverse guide then usually returns to the package with enough force that traverse guide again bounces away from the package. Since the out of round portion keeps striking the traverse guide as the collector rotates, the bouncing can continue throughout the formation of the package once an out of round package develops. Of course, since the traverse guide is bouncing, it cannot place the linear material on the package with a uniform force and the density of the material on the package is no longer uniform. Also, if the placement is sufficiently non-uniform it can be difficult or impossible to unwind the material from the package.